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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

How the Indonesian FA manages Player's Agents

The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) is tightening control over foreign players' agents. Its website has announced the purpose is "to increase foreign player's quality in Indonesia League competition, whether in Premier Division or First Division."

According to the PSSI director of Status and Players Transfer, Hamka Kadi, agents will be expected to "hunt [in] countries that traditionally have a lot [of] quality players" and not to rely on recomendations from friends that lead to unpredictable quality.

Kadi said many new foreign recruits landed in Indonesia without a job and used the football club recruitment process to acquire visas before being sacked. "There will be no more players asking for passport, visa, Kitas or ITC, personally. They must ask it via their own agent," he said. He added that if a player has no club "it is logical that if they are jobless that means they have no quality, so the agent must sent them home soon."

At the moment there are ten foreign players acknowledged by the Indonesia League, five agents recommended by PSSI last season and five just registered. None appear to have FIFA accreditation for international business.

Kadi does not deny that there are also other persons who operate as agents and offer players to clubs. "Only they cannot sell their players directly to the Indonesia League club but have to join with PSSI legal agents. Perhaps there is a margin share between them," he said.

He also confirmed that official player's agent registration with the PSSI is much lower than required by FIFA. All that is necessary is to pay PSSI a US$5,000 deposit and US$2,000 administration fee and then pay to PSSI five percent from the margin received for each player. "But that condition is unpredictable, Kadi said, "because we never know the real margin the agent got from their transfer players."